ANAHEIM, Calif. - It was just the first step in what the Stars are hoping is a long journey, but it was a large, confident, and pesky step.

Dallas players and coaches talked for the past three days about needing to come out of the All-Star break and make a statement with a solid run. They did just that with a 6-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday.

Not only does the win give the Stars a 26-21-2 record and 54 points, moving them up to ninth in the Western Conference, it gives them the belief that they can make the playoffs by simply playing their game. They didn’t do anything fancy Wednesday, but they took advantage of their opportunities, played hard, and got some luck.

"It was a good game, but not a great game," said defenseman Stephane Robidas, who had one of his best games. "We can play better, but it was the kind of game that we know we can play every night."

* Dallas was out-shot 35-26, but it did a great job of making its shots count. It had six goals from six players.

* Dallas went 1-for-3 on the power play, drawing key penalties and then converting on one. The power play doesn’t have to be spectacular, it just has to help out, and it helped out on this night. Dallas is now 13-4-1 when it scores a power play goal.

"It’s the simple things we’ve talked about, just get pucks to the net,’’ said Alex Goligoski, who had two assists. "They were very aggressive and we just stayed calm and made the simple play."

* The checking line scored twice. Eric Nystrom planted himself in front of the goal and then corralled a rebound and slapped it in for his 15th goal of the season. Meanwhile, Vernon Fiddler had a spectacular run up ice where he beat Anaheim’s Luca Sbisa for a loose puck at the defensive blue line and then started pushing up ice. He developed speed through the neutral zone, then toe-dragged on Lubomir Visnovsky. The Star-killing defenseman slid by Fiddler, and then Fiddler shoved in his seventh goal of the season as Saku Koivu tried to check him from behind. Don’t count on it every night, but boy the Stars are better when the checking line scores.

"You get guys thinking they can score, and it gets contagious," Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. "When your checking line scores two goals, that’s a great sign. We need that."

* And Jamie Benn had another amazing, highlight-reel goal. Benn was getting banged around by the physical Ducks early in the game as he made his return to the ice after missing five games because of an emergency appendectomy. Benn clearly has drawn the focus of the opposition all season, but it’s going to get even tougher after his nice outing at the All-Star Game. He had a great reaction to those hits when Steve Ott sprung him in the neutral zone, and he raced up ice on a breakaway. Any frustration that might have been building was put into a hard shot that he forced right under the crossbar for his 14th goal of the season.

* Nicklas Grossman skated before the game, but couldn’t play because of flu, so Mark Fistric stepped in and played a great game. The Stars have talked about having to play through injuries better, and Fistric’s performance shows this group does have depth in some key spots.

* Kari Lehtonen was again good in goal. He had a couple of shaky moments, and he’d probably like Sbisa’s goal back, but he stopped 33 shots and gave Dallas goaltending it could win with. Jonas Hiller didn’t do that for the Ducks.

"It was a good game," Lehtonen said. "I was glad I got some shots early to get me into the game, but then I didn’t get a shot on goal and they scored three at the other end. That was nice. I think we did a good job for our first game, and now we just have to keep doing that."

Yes, the Ducks are not in the playoff picture right now, but this is a team that came in on a 9-1-1 run and beat Phoenix 4-1 on Tuesday. This was a goalie that was among the hottest in the NHL.

The Stars found a way. It wasn’t always pretty, but it was complete. Ten Stars players had points. The power play scored, the penalty kill was perfect (4-for-4). The goalie was good.

It’s not that difficult, really, and the Stars know they can do it.

Now, they just have to do it for 33 more games.

"It’s little steps, and there’s certainly some building blocks to build on tonight," Gulutzan said.

Mike Heika, Stars beat writer for SportsDayDFW.com and The Dallas Morning News, will answer your questions about the team in a live chat at 1 p.m. Thursday.

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